Aba Riot lead to 16 deaths of Hausa and Igbo Traders

Reports indicate that riots broke out in the commercial city of Aba, Abia State and at least two persons have been confirmed dead.

Aba, a major business community in Abia state, is undoubtedly a hotbed of Pro-Biafra agitation. With the recent bad blood caused by the Fulani herdsmen attacks in the south east, the Fulani agitation has been a hot topic in the city of Aba.

Our sources say the riot started after a Hausa man had an altercation with an Igbo man. The man apparently wanted to urinate somewhere around Samek, Ariaria and this Igbo man refused and asked him to leave.A quarrel thus ensued and the Hausa man is sakid to have stabbed the fellow. The traders around there, majorly Igbo, lynched him.

This gory news spreads and a group took to Ogbor Hill where many Hausa cattle sellers stay and from then on it degenerated into a full scale riot. Soldiers are said to have been called to the cattle market in Ogbor, and this is where it is alleged that they shot an innocent Igbo trader in the course of containing the riot.

Sources say that the Army are shooting as this report is collated.

As a result of demonstrations around the town, businesses closed early in the day and people are generally scared and staying indoors.

According to YNaija, Not less than 14 Hausas and about 2 Igbos have been killed in Aba, Abia state as a result of a clash in the Ogbor Hill area.

An eyewitness disclosed to YNaija on Thursday evening, that the root cause of the clash was a debt owed to a Hausa trader by an Igbo butcher.

The lender was said to have called a soldier, also Hausa, to help him retrieve his money from the debtor.

In the process of trying to get the money from the Igbo butcher, the soldier was reported to have shot him in the back and he died on the spot.

"@EmekaGift: Just now at Aba.Hausa Nigerian Military shot and killed unarmed #Biafran,serious tension … pic.twitter.com/ETfwkw1S7T(war)

— henry macbonason (@HMacbonason) May 5, 2016

The eyewitness further revealed that the soldier tried to take the body away but a gathered mob prevented him from carrying out his escape.

This led to a protest by butchers in Aba, who got violent and went on a killing spree of Hausa shoemakers and any Hausa person in sight.

The butchers took their protest to an area called 7up junction in Ogbor Hill where they mounted barricades and constituted further violence.

Security agencies – soldiers and police – have now been drafted to the area, where order has momentarily returned to.

Meanwhile, this is what Onyeka Ezekie
l, Police PRO, Abia state had to say when contacted on the matter: “Yes, I’ve heard reports of pockets of demonstrations in Aba and I’m on way there. I cannot tell you those involved until I get there and verify things myself.”